Tag: Carol from Reading Ladies Book Club

Carol from Reading Ladies Book Club is back to help out some more during my recovery. This time, she’s here with a Guest Post that could be subtitled “Things HC Needs to Improve On.” Hope you enjoy this asmuch as I did.

An earlier version of this originally appeared at Not-So-Modern-Girl.

Don’t Be a Stranger: How to Make Connections in the Book Blogging Community

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

No One Can Blog Successfully in Isolation

One of the first blogging lessons to be learned was also my greatest challenge: I needed a Community; I desired to make connections and find my people. I knew for certain that no one can blog in isolation, but the solution intimidated me.

I’m an introvert. I’m a reader, not a talker. I love canceled plans so that I can stay home and read. I’m never lonely because I always have a book. These self-descriptors don’t set me up for making online connections. I also had fears: what if I attract creepers or someone makes a mean or negative comment?

How Did I Move From Frozen to Connected?

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

To be successful as a book blogger, I knew I had to extend myself, take chances, make the first move. Easier said than done for someone who finds comfort hiding behind a screen or seeks escapism between the pages of a book. I hope you find the following five tips helpful:

Set aside your hesitations and join ALL the social media
- Make bookish accounts (using your blog name) for Twitter/X, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads, Facebook (you can make a separate business page as an extension of your personal FB page), etc; the only place I do not have a presence is Booktube because I don’t do video reviews
- Some bloggers prefer to focus on only one or two social media platforms, but I’ve found it beneficial to dabble in all of them (each platform reaches different potential followers); I gain the majority of my “click throughs” from Pinterest and Twitter/X
- Follow bookish accounts on Bookstagram (Instagram users with bookish accounts), BookTwitter/BookX (Twitter/X users with bookish accounts), Facebook, Booktube, etc
- Look for opportunities to join engagement groups on Bookstagram and Twitter/X
- Follow blogging and book groups on Twitter/X and begin to comment on threads
- Drop your links often (at the end of your Goodreads review for example) …but not in blog comments unless asked
- Pin often to Pinterest and join group boards for pinning book review posts
- Make sure your blog has its social sharing options set up….especially for Twitter/X
- Share each and every post you write to all your social media accounts (you can set up your blog to automatically share your posts to social media accounts)
- Yes, this takes time and is uncomfortable for introverts at first, but if you want to find your people and have people find you (a community), you need to promote yourself consistently

Find Your Niche and Your People
- Book Reviews and Talking Bookish are my main niches, but I can narrow that niche more by connecting with bloggers who enjoy certain genres or subgenres
- Do some blog hopping and follow a few blogs (maybe five as a starting point) that share your niche, content, and preferences (visiting the “About Page” on a blog is a good way to begin)….hopefully they will follow you back
- Begin “tweeting,” “liking” and “commenting” on their posts….hopefully they will return the comment or even reciprocate by commenting on your posts
- Don’t be discouraged…..not all bloggers will reciprocate…..move on
- Once you have developed a reciprocal blogging relationship with a handful of bloggers, expand the pool
- In four years, I have developed an inner circle of bloggers (20-30) whom I consider my “community”; We comment on each other’s posts, share reading preferences, enjoy bookish conversations, and promote each other’s posts on twitter; this all happened organically through genuine interactions
- In the huge worldwide web, this is the group with whom you will invest the most time
- Oh, and those negative comments or creeper concerns? Almost nonexistent. However, you do need to be wise and aware (WordPress is great at filtering out spam)

Slowly Expand Your Reach; Try New Things
- Guest posting is a new venture for me, so this post is me expanding my reach and trying new things
- I’m thrilled to have connected with blogger H.C. Newton @ Irresponsible Reader
- Try new memes or challenges….I’ve often participated in #NonFictionNovember #NovNov (Novellas in November), #TopTenTuesday #Top5Tuesday #ThrowbackThursday #LetsTalkBookish #LetsDiscuss ….these are all great ways to meet new bloggers and make connections
- Check the calendar for special days or theme months…..an opportunity to connect with other bloggers using the same prompts and tags
- Participating in a blogger’s book tag is a fun way to make new blogging friends (if you want to be tagged in my next book tag post, let me know in comments)

Participate in Popular Memes to interact with like-minded bloggers
- Top Ten Tuesday is a popular bookish meme for your first experience (ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com)
- TTT participants are known for their generosity in blog hopping and commenting (always return the favor)

ENJOY and TREASURE Your New Book Blogging Community
- Celebrate their achievements
- Continue the conversation
- Enjoy the connection

The Joy of Book Blogging: Community

In (almost) seven years, I can truly say that the JOY in blogging (for me) is the community. Book people are the best people. I hope that if you have not already found your community that these few tips have been helpful and encouraging. Although I’m still a new blogger, I’m happy to answer questions on connecting and blogging and book reviewing!

I’m Carol, and if you’ve read this because you love blogging and reading, then we’re already friends!

I’m a retired 5th-grade teacher, an ardent and avid bibliophile, and my favorite genres are historical fiction, literary fiction, and contemporary fiction. In addition, I enjoy reading selected memoirs and other narrative nonfiction.

My blog www.ReadingLadies.com is almost seven years old. The mission of my blog is to share a love of great literature across a variety of genres with an intentional focus on new releases, thoughtful themes, diverse cultures, and “own voices” authors. I desire to be a trusted reviewer for your next great read! Respectful conversations are always welcome.

Let’s Get Social:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/readingladies_book_club
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ReadingLadiesBC
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ReadingLadies
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/16412589-carol-reading-ladies
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/readingisasport

Irresponsible Reader Pilcrow Icon

Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books with Carol from Reading Ladies Book Club

By HCNewton

On May 8, 2024

In Books, News/Misc., Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books

Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books
This is where I should be introducing Carol and her blog, but she did the work for me. So I’m going to shut up and let her do her thing….

Shout Out to H.C. Newton @ IrresponsibleReader for this guest post opportunity!

I’m Carol, a retired 5th-grade teacher, an ardent and avid bibliophile, a literacy advocate, and your new bookish friend. My favorite genres are historical fiction, literary fiction, and contemporary fiction.

In addition, I enjoy reading selected memoirs and other narrative nonfiction. I’m an incorrigible mood reader.

My blog www.ReadingLadies.com is almost seven years old, and my mission is to share a love of great literature across a variety of genres with an intentional focus on new releases, thoughtful themes, diverse cultures, and “own voices” authors. I desire to be a trusted reviewer for your next great read! Respectful conversations are always welcome.

I love making book lists and sharing recommendations. My Top Five or Top Ten of anything varies from day to day

If I were on an island, I’d be thrilled with ANY five books! After all, I’m the kid who read the back of cereal boxes. In reality, I’d have my entire library with me on my kindle (with a solar charger).

However, if I had a choice of grabbing five physical books, I might reach for the following:

A Book to Encourage Endurance: a survival story set on an island
Castle of Water by Dane Hucklebridge
Genre/Categories/Setting: Contemporary Fiction, Survival, Cast-a-ways, Remote and Uninhabited Island

Link to my review: https://readingladies.com/2017/09/22/castle-of-water/

Sophie, an architect and honeymooner, and Barry, disillusioned with his career in finance and seeking inspiration for his love of art end up on one very small island when their plane is hit by lightning and crashes in the middle of the South Pacific. Strangers and sole survivors and as different as night and day, Sophie and Barry wash up on a small uninhabited island and survival becomes their primary objective. Sophie and Barry draw from each other’s strengths and skills and through harrowing experiences, keep the hope of rescue alive.
“And so it came to pass that two utterly disparate lives happened to overlap … bound together on an uninhabited island some 2,359 miles from Hawaii, 4,622 miles from Chile, and 533 miles from the nearest
living soul.

Crap, as Barry liked to say.

Putain de merde, as Sophie was known to exclaim.”

A Book For inspiration: one that will encourage me to write my own letters
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Genre/Categories/Setting: Literary Fiction, Father/son, Faith, Small Town Rural America

Gilead

Review link: https://wordpress.com/post/readingladies.com/16491

Pulitzer Prize 2005. New York Times Top-Ten Book of 2004. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Marilynne Robinson writes the quiet story of three generations of fathers and sons. faith, and rural life. In the present day, our main character is most concerned that the son will truly know his father and appreciate the legacy he leaves.

“When things are taking their ordinary course, it is hard to remember what matters. There are so many things you would never think to tell anyone. And I believe they may be the things that mean most to you,
and that even your own child would have to know in order to know you well at all.”

“I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle. You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words
to tell you.”

A Book About Family: one that reminds me of unconditional love
A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
Genre/Categories/Setting: Contemporary Fiction, Complicated Family Drama, California

Review Link: https://wordpress.com/post/readingladies.com/6599

A Place For Us shares the story of an Indian-American Muslim family whom we meet as they gather to celebrate a family wedding. Through flashbacks, readers are filled in on the family dynamics, family history, and become acquainted with the parents, Rafiq and Layla, and their three children, Hadia, Huda, and Amar. Told mostly from the perspectives of Layla, Hadia, and Amar, readers begin to appreciate the complexity of family relationships, understand the bonds that draw the family together, and become acquainted with the personalities along with the insecurities and rivalries that cause conflict. In light of the parents’ conservative Muslim faith and living in California, the children must find their way in reconciling the faith of their parents and their traditional ways with the reality of day-to-day lives, and individual hopes and dreams. At the wedding of the oldest daughter, which breaks with tradition and is a union of love and not arranged by parents, Amar, the prodigal son, reunites with his family for the first time in three years. The last part of the story is told from the father’s heartfelt perspective. This is a story of love, parenting, coming of age, faith, and belonging.

“Of all my mistakes the greatest, the most dangerous, was not emphasizing the mercy of God.”

A Historical Fiction Reread: one memorable and thought-provoking story

Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Genre/Categories/Setting: Historical Fiction, Slavery, Abolition, Women’s Rights, Charleston, Plantation Life, pre Civil War
The Invention of Wings

Review Link: https://wordpress.com/post/readingladies.com/6859

The Invention of Wings is a fictionalized biographical account of the Grimke sisters as they become trailblazers in the abolition movement and early leaders in the fight for women’s rights.

The story takes place in the pre Civil War era and begins on a plantation in Charleston. On the occasion of Sarah Grimke’s eleventh birthday, she’s presented with her own slave, ten-year old Hetty “Handful” Grimke. Sarah has always been uncomfortable with this tradition. At first, Sarah and Handful are more like sisters and playmates as they develop a friendly companionship. As the story progresses, Sarah leaves Charleston to join her adventurous and fearless sister, Angelina, in the north as early pioneers in the fight for abolition and women’s rights. We follow Sarah’s and Hetty’s journeys for thirty-five years as both women strive to carve out a life of their own and navigate a close and complex relationship.
“The world may try to dim your light, but it can never extinguish your fire.”

A Comfort Read: a favorite book about books
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Genre/Categories/Setting: Historical fiction, Book About Books and Book Club, Found Family

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Written in epistolary form, this is a warmhearted story of a unique book club that formed on the Island of Guernsey during WWII. Juliet begins a correspondence with the literary members and learns about the impact
of the recent German occupation. Her in-person visit will change her life.

“Reading good books will ruin you for enjoying bad ones.”

For Hope and Comfort: words from Scripture
The New Testament

The New Testament